Op-ed: Transforming health care for thousands

Marcella Robinson

Friday

Oct 26, 2007 at 12:01 AM

There is a historic statewide election going on right now, the largest of its kind in the history of New England. The results will impact 15,000 seniors and people with disabilities who depend on a personal care attendant to help with daily living. This vote is truly essential to fixing health care in Massachusetts. Personal-care attendants are critical health-care workers who prepare meals, give baths, help pay bills and numerous other daily tasks. There are more than 2,200 attendants in the Quincy/Brockton area -- 10 percent of the entire personal-attendant workforce in Massachusetts.

For Monday release
There is a historic statewide election going on right now, the largest of its kind in the history of New England. The results will impact 15,000 seniors and people with disabilities who depend on a personal care attendant to help with daily living. This vote is truly essential to fixing health care in Massachusetts.
Personal-care attendants are critical health-care workers who prepare meals, give baths, help pay bills and numerous other daily tasks. There are more than 2,200 attendants in the Quincy/Brockton area -- 10 percent of the entire personal-attendant workforce in Massachusetts.
The current system that claims to connect seniors and people with disabilities to attendants is terribly flawed. More often than not, consumers are forced to find their PCA using Craigslist, newspaper classifieds, hospital bulletin boards and other methods that are ineffective and unreliable.
Because personal-care attendants are not currently organized in a way that makes them readily accessible to consumers, the people in need of their valuable services cannot readily access the care attendants provide. As a personal-care attendant, I have heard the stories from seniors and people with disabilities who couldn't find someone to help them get out of bed or feed themselves. Massachusetts citizens should not have to Google the Web to meet their daily needs.
If the vote is successful, 22,000 personal-care attendants will be taking an enormous step toward providing better access to health care for thousands of Massachusetts men and women. Ballots for this election arrived in mailboxes on October 16th and are due by November 6th.
The vote will not only help consumers gain better access to health care, but it will also resolve the tremendous turnover rates among those who perform this important and difficult job. Turnover rates for personal attendants have reached alarming levels, with six out of 10 attendants leaving their positions each year.
Many attendants are forced to find new careers that provide more money, sick days and vacations, benefits they do not currently enjoy. Most of these health-care workers do not even have health insurance for themselves. I know that many personal attendants struggle to support their families on $10.84 per hour and no benefits or sick days.
As a personal-care attendant for 10 years, I remember times when it was a struggle raising my two children, knowing that I couldn't call in sick or take a vacation. This vote will provide personal attendants the security of a good-paying job with solid benefits so that they can continue doing their enormously critical work and be able to live their lives.
The lives of thousands of seniors, people with disabilities and personal-care attendants will be greatly improved if this vote passes. As the baby boomer generation ages and more people wish to live independently, there is a growing need to create better access to these invaluable health-care workers. I support my fellow attendants in their attempt to improve health care in Massachusetts and encourage them to vote "Yes" in this pivotal election.
Marcella Robinson is a personal-care attendant. She lives in Brockton.
The Patriot Ledger

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